Sincerely, Sterling | January 2021: Revisiting 2020
Although 2020 was a crazy year, lots of good came out of it. Let me take you through some of the best parts of 2020 and introduce a project I'll be working on for the next few months.
Welcome to my personal newsletter, Sincerely, Sterling! My name is Sterling Kalogeras. I'm a 16-year-old innovator with a love for computer science, math, and government.
I’m honored to share the best things I’ve done in 2020 with you for this month’s edition of my newsletter. So, without further ado, let’s see what I’ve done in the past year.
First Steps in the Right Direction
This past fall, I joined The Knowledge Society, or TKS for short. It’s a program that has exposed me to emerging technologies, taught me leadership skills, and brought me to a great community of scholarly-minded individuals. Without joining this program, I would not have been able to do nearly the amount of cool work that I have done the past year. In fact, you probably wouldn’t be reading this newsletter had I not joined TKS!
Projects
Content Creation
I’ve explored many technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, human longevity, and quantum computing, to name a few. One topic I’ve really enjoyed is artificial intelligence. In fact, I even wrote an article on the topic, introducing people to the field if they were new. Below is a snapshot from the article.
A.I. Hackathon
My first big project of the year was an artificial intelligence hackathon, where a group and I had to come up with a use of artificial intelligence to better the world. We decided to use A.I. to help people with general anxiety disorder.
We created a mockup of an app called E-Motivate. The app would work with a Muse headband to scan a person’s brain and diagnose them with how they’re currently feeling in order to give them advice on how to feel better. Below is a picture of our mockup.
PathCheck Challenge
Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has been in our lives for quite some time now, so another project I worked on was to help the organization PathCheck Foundation try to get at least 50% of Minnesota’s population to download their COVID-19 contact tracting app Covidaware.
My group and I decided that the best way to do this would be for PathCheck to improve their social media game. We suggested that they purchase advertisement space on social media platforms, partner with prominent influencers, create a social media management team, and more.
Focus Up
I will be embarking on a journey that will last the next few months that TKS calls the Focus project. I will be doing my focus project on artificial intelligence. I’ve already explored artificial intelligence, but I’ve barely scratched the surface! In this project, I will go deeper into the field, doing my own research and creating content. I’m excited to see what I can come up with and I hope you are too!
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of my newsletter! Thank you so much for reading, and if you like what you read, consider subscribing in order to get updated on my personal progress.
In the meantime, tell your friends! Also, if you’re interested, you can check out my Medium profile and my LinkedIn profile. Again, thanks for reading and have a fantastic day!